Looking for an easy way to lose weight without starving?

A wheat free diet is effective for many people. Wheat flour is one of the most common food allergies, and even a slight wheat intolerance can sabotage weight loss. Going wheat-free or gluten-free is a healthy way to revitalize energy and shed pounds quickly and easily.

Wheat Intolerance and Weight Loss

Wheat allergy is one of the most common food sensitivities in the Western world. Doctors and naturopaths think this might be because the wheat grain has been so refined and modified over years of cultivation, but the reason doesn’t really matter: the bottom line is that many, if not most, people are slightly wheat intolerant.

This wheat intolerance causes a host of trivial symptoms that add up, ranging from everyday fatigue to moodiness to weight gain. And taking wheat out of the diet can have dramatic changes in all of these areas, especially in quick and easy weight loss.

The majority of people who go wheat-free lose weight, sometimes dramatically. Most people also feel better: more energy, more alert, better sleep, less mood swings. Time and again, people who try this will tell me that the daytime grogginess they’ve suffered and lived with for years, and would treat with loads of caffeine, is suddenly gone.

Dr. Davis recommends eliminating wheat from the diet completely for fast results. He also describes the impact that a wheat-free diet has on improving the cholesterol levels of his patients, raising the healthy HDL and lowering LDL even in patients who don’t lose weight.

Wheat Free or Gluten Free Diet?

Some experts believe that it is the gluten protein in wheat that causes problems. These doctors recommend avoiding all of the grains that contain gluten (wheat, spelt, rye, oats, and barley) for optimal weight loss.

Going gluten-free is a much trickier proposition, since it makes it very difficult to find bread, cereals, and other grain products that are diet-friendly. And, in most cases, it is wheat flour alone that is not tolerated well.

One option is to try a wheat-free diet for a few weeks, noting the results in a diet journal, before trying a gluten-free diet for a few weeks, and then switching back. Given a little time and experimentation, the body will usually send clear signals about which foods are safe and which are not well tolerated. Gas, bloating, energy levels, and weight gain/loss are usually clear signs after two to three weeks (or in much less time).

Wheat Free Bread, Pasta, Cereal and Baking Alternatives

For those who are interested in trying a wheat-free diet to lose weight, there are many healthy alternatives to wheat flour in supermarkets and health food stores today.

It’s easy to find bread, pasta, cereal, and even cookies and pastry that are wheat-free or gluten-free, as well as cookbooks of wheat-free recipes that use alternate grains such as:

spelt

rye

barley

buckwheat

amaranth

kamut

Gluten-free grains are also popular, including options such as:

corn

rice

soy

quinoa

Flours and grains that should be avoided on a wheat-free diet include:

white flour

pastry flour

whole grain wheat flour

millet

couscous

spelt – closely related to wheat, so some people prefer to avoid it, while others tolerate spelt well

All of these alternative grains offer ways to achieve healthy weight loss easily, naturally and simply by avoiding wheat flour in foods.